I got up early this morning, which was a major deal because I was kept up last night by a loud party down the street. When we’re in Santa Barbara we live about 0.4 miles from Oprah on the same street she lives on. You probably read about her big fund raiser last night for Barack Obama. Well, it was loud (especially Stevie Wonder) and mildly annoying. Anyway, I got up early and dealt with ALL the comments that have been stacking up. So, if you’ve had a comment languishing in comment Purgatory, it’s now up. Sorry for the delay, but I’ve been covered up with other projects. I’ll try to do better.
Here is a an article in the LA Times by Matt Welch, one of the bloggers I read daily. Matt writes for the Times, but he also has a quirky blog on the stuff that interests him along with insider Los Angeles info and a lot of funky music videos that I really enjoy. The times article deals with the law of unintended consequences (one of the most powerful laws in the universe that few people ever think about) as related to passports and fathers who run out on their child support.
A great YouTube video of Luciano Pavarotti singing a duet with Bryan Adams. Shows just how weak the voices of the mega rock stars are when compared to someone who really has a voice.
This site has a great chart of all the lab result conversion factors. Most medical papers are starting to use the Systeme Internationale (SI) units when discussing lab values. Here in America we still use US units, which, as far as I’m concerned, are the ‘real’ units. When I was in my training all the hospitals used US units except for Arkansas Children’s Hospital, which, inexplicably, had gone metric, at least in terms of temperatures. When I would get called about a sick kid the nurse would always give the the kid’s temp in Centigrade, as in 38 degrees. I would always say, what’s the kids temp in real degrees? (answer 100.4). I still have to convert when I’m given a temp in Centigrade – I just don’t have a feel for it the way I do for Farenheit. In fact, here is a temperature conversion calculator that I use.
If you want to make your workouts more fun and if you’re female, here is a blog post for you. My friend Adam Campbell at Men’s Health writes about an exercise that strengthens the core and provides an unexpected and welcome benefit for many women who perform it (it’s called the Corgasm, so that should give you a clue). I encouraged MD to try it without telling her what the ‘other’ consequences might be. I was curious. But, alas for her, despite being able to do several slow reps (I could do only two) all she got was a strenuous core workout. Remember, do it slowly.
I’ll let Dr. Hotze do some of the heaving lifting on the subject of L-glutamine and GI health. MD and I have had remarkable results giving patients with severe GI diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis with large doses of L-glutamine.
Loren Cordain has a nice piece on grass fed beef. As is typical of Loren, who is extremely interested in fatty acid content of everything, has the fatty acid breakdown laid out.
Chris Masterjohn, who I believe is a reader of this blog, has a great site on cholesterol. Learn everything you need to know on this site. It’s written from a low-carb perspective, so you won’t find the all-too-typical advice to cut the fat in your diet. Enjoy.
And finally a little fun. In the below YouTube a potential victim of a medical study gets scammed.
[youtube]1sL-hKhJtwM[/youtube]
The official website of Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades, low carb pioneers and authors of Protein Power.
Do you think glutamine might help with GERD?
Hi John–
I don’t think it would hurt, but I’ve never used glutamine specifically for GERD.
If you try it, let me know how it works.
Cheers–
MRE
I really enjoy your blog!
Glad you mentioned Loren Cordain – I’ve been improving my health through his Paleo Diet…I just wanted an easy plan where I didn’t have to weigh, measure or count anything, and his worked out perfectly for me. Plus I’m in the low carb minority that does NOT believe in the healh benefits of saturated fat!
Will you be interviewing Gary Taubes soon? I’m interested in what he has to say, since we haven’t really heard from him since his NY Times article.
Thanks for a really great blog and spending all the time to give us such informative (and entertaining!) information.
Hi Sheryl–
I hope to be interviewing Gary within the next week or so.
Glad you’re enjoying the blog.
Cheers–
MRE
P.S.
I am on a caveman food forum, and some of us wonder whatever happened to Ray Audette (I believe you wrote the forward to his book Neanderthin)…as someone said, it seems he’s fallen off the face of the earth – a google search brings up nothing recent. Are ever in touch with him?…hope he’s ok!
I haven’t seen or heard from Ray in a couple of years. I’ll do some checking around to see what I can find out.
Best–
MRE
Temperature and weight….I never have gotten those straight!! At one point in my career (I’m a RN, 1976 grad) I did insurance and IPA (independent Practice Association) clinical reviews. When it got to the babies I always had to make a conversion!
Thanks for the links!!
I didn’t think those were “surprising unintended consequences”. We have built a very high wall around ourselves in the name of security. And we are just beginning to feel the consequences.
Down With Homeland Security! As Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson said “people willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both”
I couldn’t agree more.
MRE
How much l-glutamine would one take to tread IBS? Should you take it with meals or alone?
Thx
You need to get the powdered variety and take 4-10 grams. You can mix it in a shake. It doesn’t matter all that much whether it is taken alone or with meals.
Good luck.
MRE
In the “Grass fed beef link” Cordain states:
“A litany of recent human studies demonstrates that isocaloric replacement of dietary fat by lean protein has numerous health promoting effects.”
First of all, I’d love to see your take on this “litany” of studies. Did the referenced studies make an isocaloric comparison of lean protein and grass fed beef fat? I really doubt that.
Why write an article about the benefits of grass fed beef (lean and fat) and then make reference to research that most likely studied the fat (feed lot feed beef) you have just trashed?
Sadly, no new studies will ever take place on grass fed animal products (meat, fat, eggs, milk, cheese, butter) or on coconut oil or any of the other “discredited” fats.
I’m a real believer in grass fed and I’m glad to say that here in Pennsylvania we have many local options for a whole range of grass fed beef products.
As always – thanks for the blog!!!
Philip Thackray
Hi Philip–
I’ve seen a number of studies in which protein replaced carbohydrate and positive changes resulted. There may be a ‘litany of stiudies’ showing improvement in numerous health parameters when fat is replaced by protein, but I haven’t seen them.
Cheers–
MRE
Just a quick comment on the Pavarotti/Adams duet. The comments on that site all seemed to diss Adams. Sure, he’s not a trained tenor like Pavarotti is (was) and he did not do the piece justice — in fact, Adams did more screaming than singing on those higher/louder passages. However, I don’t think I’d wnat to hear Pavarotti’s rendition of rock & roll either. Each is (was) a talent in his own right.
I would have loved to have heard Pavarotti give rock and roll a try. Who knows. He might have become the next Elvis.
Cheers–
MRE